The IT Nerd

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Smart technology is dramatically changing the way airports are run and enhancing the passenger experience.

The newly opened Istanbul Airport, the hub for the ever-expanding Turkish Airlines, unveiled earlier this year, covers 76 million square meters or 18,780 acres. Once complete, it will be able to handle 200 million passengers a year and be the biggest airport by passenger traffic (by comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta, is currently the busiest airport with 107 million passengers a year).

Behind the success of this airport, in large part, is technology developed with industry leaders such as Cisco, Microfocus, DellEmc, Hitachi and Vmware.

Here are some highlights:

New systems:

• This airport is the first TIER 3 intelligent Airport Data Center in the world, certified by Uptime Institute, the global data center authority.
  
• An Airport Collaborative Decision Making system has been implemented, where stakeholders in the aviation sector (airport operators, airlines, ground handling companies, state authorities) can share the data they have and allow for more accurate decisions by looking at the same operational picture.
• A level-4 Airport Surface Movement and Guidance Control System has been implemented to help keep airport ground operations safe and fast, especially at low visibility conditions.
• A biometric integrated passport control system was developed in coordination with Turkish Police IT Department. The system is capable of validating passengers who hold a Turkish Passport, by using fingerprint and face recognition biometric features.
• A new system called the Passenger Flow Monitoring (PFM) will monitor passenger flow through various checkpoints such as passport control in order to segregate land side/airside passage. This will allow passengers to be directed in a more intelligent manner.
• A technology driven bag-drop system enables passengers to check-in their luggage quickly and easily. Having checked in online or at the airport kiosks, passengers weigh their bags and use their boarding pass at the self-bag-tag kiosk located in the airport terminal to generate a label for their bag.
• Waiting time at baggage carousels will be shortened. The 42 kilometers long baggage system, holding the capacity to process over 28,880 pieces of luggage per hour, ensures an uninterrupted passenger experience by bringing down the baggage waiting period to a minimum level.
• The EBS system (early baggage storage system) with a capacity of 10,800 pieces of luggage makes it possible to store early arriving baggage, thereby making Istanbul Airport use the latest baggage store technology.

Artificial intelligence:

• Biometric screening and advanced passport control has been integrated to help passengers check in quicker.
• A range of software has been developed from mobile applications to boost airport security systems to an airline messaging platform and a joint decision-making system.
• The airport is also working on the first airport data center in the world, the first virtual tower application in Turkey, domestic robots and unmanned passenger transfer vehicles.

Robotics:

Istanbul Airport will have Humanoid Infotainment Robots to:

• Meet and greet passengers and offer general information about the Airport with audio-visual guidance
• Provide passengers, using their boarding pass, specific information about flight status, gate numbers, check-in desks, etc.